after the meeting, house democrat leader nancy pelosi told us she'sa at least a little encouraged. >> it was constructive. as i say, candor is constructive, and i think it moved us forward, but we'll see. >> reporter: it was the first meeting with the president and all the congressional leaders in six weeks. it follows an impasse that has shaken wall street, the dow down more than 400 points since talks stalled last week. and on main street, business owners like drew greenblatt, who owns a wire basket manufacturing company in baltimore, say the coming fiscal cliff is already causing pain because they just don't know what will happen to their taxes. >> right now we're doing our budget. we're deciding how many people we're hiring next year. we're figuring out how many robots and machines we'll invest. >> reporter: and across the country all the political bickering had people outraged with washington. >> i can't believe we've gotten this close. >> time for them to turn in their term paper. >> the parties are trying to outdo each other. >> sit down, don't come out of the room until you ha